More on Coping

Everyone copes with stressful situations differently. What do you do when you are stressed? Do you handle it positively or negatively? Positive coping skills fall under two main categories: problem-focused or emotionally based (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, Bucher, & Camera, 2011) Strategies that are problem-focused attempt to solve the issue through examining the situation without the heat of emotion, explore possible solutions, and actively work with one of the solutions. Emotional strategies help us work through the feelings or emotions, substituting good feelings for those negative ones such as anxiety, anger, frustration, even sadness. Both categories can be very helpful at alleviating stress because they address the problem in different ways. Let's look at some examples:

Now see if you can place each of these coping strategies into either the problem-based or emotion-based column:

1. Obtaining a second opinion about a recommended surgery.
2. Making a "to do" list of priorities.
3. Eating a bowl of ice cream.
4. Packing a healthy lunch instead of buying from the cafeteria. (Careful on this one!)
5. Asking for clarification in order to complete a paper or project.
6. Baking a treat for your colleagues or peers.

Can you come up with additional ideas? I encourage you to post comments on your personal coping strategies as a way to share this learning experience, and ask you to identify them as being problem or emotion based. Another way of thinking about emotion-based coping strategies is that they make you feel better, but do not solve the problem. Yet coping with stress has much to do with changing our attitude. Attitude is a reflection of our belief in managing stress (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall, 2013). When our attitude is better, our minds become clearer so we can devise solutions to the problems or stressors.

In our next segment, we will explore the stress response.

References:

Lewis, S. L., Dirksen, S. R., Heitkemper, M. M., Bucher, L., & Camera, I. M. (2011). Medical-surgical nursing. Assessment and management of clinical problems (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P. A., & Hall, A. M. (2013). Fundamentals of Nursing (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.